Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and may not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
Picture a Monopoly game where the banker changes the rules halfway through. Or a football game where your kicker nails the game-winning field goal and the ref decides it's only worth one point. That's what the Vancouver city attorney is doing to the city's ethics policy.
Rob Anderson
On October 6, 2026, I filed the ethics complaint against Council Member Diana Perez. Policy 100-36, which the council adopted, gives the city attorney one narrow job: decide whether the complaint, "on its face, alleges facts that, if true," would show a violation, then send that finding to the City Council, which decides whether to refer the complaint to an outside investigator or dismiss it. The city attorney doesn't investigate or settle disputed facts.
City Attorney Nena Cook's memo recommending dismissal changed the rules by conducting her own investigation. It pulled Secretary of State filings, relied on Perez's own account of where her loan came from, and, as The Columbian Newspaper reported, "verified" that account. Verifying is investigating, and the policy gives that job to someone independent.
Then came a classic straw man. The memo says I alleged Perez co-owned her café when she moved to fund Fourth Plain Forward (FPF) in May 2025. I never said that. The memo spends a page and a stack of exhibits knocking down a claim I didn't make.
Meanwhile, many of the allegations I did make got no analysis. My complaint cites five provisions. The memo analyzes one question: whether she had an interest in a $100,000 contract. The appearance-of-impropriety standard, Section 5.0, is part of the city's own policy, and the memo doesn't analyze it at all. It's as if that section no longer exists. Poof, gone.
Here are the facts the memo ignored or danced around:
- On May 12, 2025, Perez moved and voted to give FPF $100,000 in city CDBG funds for small-business assistance.
- FPF's CDBG services include "access to loans and other sources of capital."
- The memo itself concedes her café "received a construction loan from Fourth Plain Forward."
- It's irrefutable that Ms. Perez received services from Fourth Plain Forward.
- FPF's own website says, "Our services are supported by the City of Vancouver and Clark County."
- In June 2025, one month after her vote, FPF gave the café's owners a $2,500 micro-grant, clearly tying Perez's future business to CDBG services.
- On September 21, 2026, she voted on FPF's CDBG results report to HUD without disclosing or recusing.
If this memo stands, the council isn't quietly shelving Policy 100-36 behind closed doors. It's ripping it up right in front of us.
The city attorney needs to correct the memo immediately, before Monday evening or I will seek immediate legal relief. I'm not asking the council to find anyone guilty. I'm asking it to follow its own rules and send this complaint to an independent investigator. The council takes this up Monday, October 26, at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. To comment, sign up online or send written comments by noon Monday.
Rob Anderson
Reform Clark County founder
Reformcast host
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